Making History On Thursday, October 4, 1951, Major League Baseball broke another barrier. During Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium between the New York Yankees and the New York Giants, the Giants started three Black players in the outfield: Hank Thompson in right, Monte Irvin in left, and a…

A Frightened and Divided Nation The debate over gun control is endless, with both sides having different interpretations of the 2nd Amendment. Instead of solutions, we get vitriol and frustration. Weapons sales continue to rise each year; the volume is staggering. 2020 saw more than 23 million firearms purchased. During the pandemic, the FBI was…

On the cold, foggy morning of December 17, 1944, a convoy of U.S. artillerymen approached the village of Schonberg, Belgium. They were trying to escape from a German attack which had caught them by surprise the day before. As they reached a small stone bridge across the Our River, the…

What’s Old Is What’s New Again Pitching wins championships. That axiom is as old as baseball itself. There was no greater example than the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers, who won 99 games and featured two of the best starting pitchers of all time, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Koufax’s regular season was one of the greatest…

The Rematch So much of baseball’s appeal is its history, and very often, that history repeats itself. In October 1962, two of Major League Baseball’s most storied franchises met in a three-game playoff for the first time since their infamous 1951 series. There would be a lot of familiar faces as well…

A City in Fear In August 1969, Los Angeles was a city on edge. Seven people were murdered in a gruesome fashion at two different locations. Just after midnight on Saturday, August 9, actress Sharon Tate and four others were slaughtered during a home invasion in Beverly Hills. …

Shock and Awe At 0530 on Saturday, December 16, 1944, huge spotlights began bouncing off the dark clouds, lighting up the darkness throughout the Ardennes region of southeastern Belgium. Multicolored flares popped and hissed until finally falling to earth. Armored vehicles rumbled forward. Silent figures, lurking in the darkness, emerged from the woods…

A Shocking Crime On July 4, 1950, 54-year-old Barney Doyle was shot and killed at the Polo Grounds, just before a doubleheader between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hardly anyone heard the shot; they only saw Mr. Doyle slump down. Most thought it was a heart attack. Others later claimed…

Good Times, Bad Times The New York Yankees are one of the most successful sports franchises in history. Since the 1920s, they have been Major League Baseball’s white whale. Their greatest players became cultural icons: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, and Derek Jeter. Owners, executives…